A variety of packages, including dispensing packages or containers, have been developed for household products, personal care products, and other products. Currently, there are several closure designs on store shelves. They all vary from Disc/pivot top, push to open, flip top, push and pull, twist to open, as well as a variety of others. A current disadvantage of all these closures is that they don't take into consideration the ease of use, audible/tactile signals, intuitiveness, and ergonomic features that delights the consumer. In the present invention, all designs being developed take into consideration consumer insight. All closures represent one handed operation that demonstrates obviousness in open and close position with integrated locking feature. Also, the present invention will enable upright and inverted use of the package. Each closure is holistically designed to deliver intuitive operation; obviousness of being open or closed; ergonomic to operate; and providing all of the sensory (audible, tactile and visual) cues for operation. Further, the present invention expands on consumer insights that drive to efficiency per usage experience.
Currently, most closures complete the geometry of the container, thereby requiring the size of the closure to be proportional to the geometry of the container. In the present invention, the size of the closure is minimized thereby providing several benefits. One of the benefits is reducing the weight of the closure to the minimum amount of resin needed to enable the required closure functionality. This is a benefit for the environment as industry currently does not have a well established polypropylene recycling stream. By having a closure that has a reduced weight from the overall package, this allows a container to have improved recyclability. It also reduces the overall costs of the closure including costs associated with resin, processing, tooling, injection mold (IM) press selection, and others. Another benefit of minimizing closure size is that the closure becomes a less focal point of the design making it more inductive to use the same closure for different container designs within one brand and even enable the use of the same closure across different brands/shaped families. This drives optimization and efficiency and in return reduces further costs. This further enables the silhouette of the shape to be scaled proportionally without the use of additional features such as container shoulders (10) and angles to accommodate the closure.
Another benefit for minimizing the closure size is that it can be integrated in the container shape. When the container is in its inverted orientation, an integrated design allows the use of the container top surface to add stability vs. requiring a larger closure. This drives scale in the container design and development and therefore is an advantage. It also aids in creating differentiation between the forms (such as shampoo and conditioner), helping consumers identify the product that they are looking for.
In conventional twist to open closures, where the direction/movement and the retention of one piece to the other are achieved via the use of threads, the present invention enables the control of the direction and retention of both parts independently within each other via the use of ribs and rails. At the same time, the use of ribs and rails enables injection molding tool design simplification. The threads in a plastic component are conventionally molded via stripping the threads, unscrewing mechanism or by side actions in the too, in order to release the undercuts in the plastic component. By having side actions or unscrewing mechanism in the tool, it limits the amount of parts that may fit in the tool. This is due to the larger area of space needed to accommodate the mechanical (side action) components. This not only limits the size of the tool but also increases the tool cost, as well as increasing the maintenance of the tool. Further, in a conventional mold, by stripping the threads of the tool, it enables straight pull tool design while limiting the robustness of engagement between the plastic components. When stripping undercuts, there is a maximum possible undercut depth that the industry can strip today for a given hoop strength of a component, without damaging the component. This limits the robustness in stability and integrity of the assembly of both components. Therefore, the present invention enables straight pull tool design, while maintaining the integrity of both components as well as the stability of the assembly of the closure.